Sunday, September 25, 2016

I spoke to a local infill spec builder yesterday who has been asking me for advice for several years (and happy with my advice!). The builder brought up the election ... The spec builder told me he was thinking of voting for Trump because his tax rate would be lower. I asked him "How is business?"

The spec builder told me 2016 was his best year ever, and the last few years have been the best of his career.

So I asked what he thought would happen if Trump was elected?

We discussed The Wall, more deportations, trade disputes and more. He asked for my advice if Trump is elected: I explained that it is not possible to predict exactly what will happen because Trump's proposals all over the place ... and Congress would probably block some of Trump’s proposals.

But in general, my advice would be to scale back on his spec building.

I also told him that all key forecasters are assuming Ms. Clinton will win, so forecasts will be revised (probably down) ... And if Trump is elected, the changing forecasts would mean the markets will be volatile. He noted that his sales always slow when the markets are volatile.

My conclusion was that voting for a lower tax rate – and probably worse business conditions – seems penny-wise and pound foolish.

Monday:
• At 10:00 AM ET, New Home Sales for August from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for an decrease in sales to 598 thousand Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) in August from 654 thousand in July.

Oil prices were up over the last week with WTI futures at $44.85 per barrel and Brent at $46.26 per barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $45, and Brent was at $47 - so prices are down slightly year-over-year.

Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are at $2.20 per gallon (down less than $0.10 per gallon from a year ago).